that Vito Fossella insists that his lesbian sister, her partner and their children not be invited to family events and refuses to attend if they are? And all in the name of "family values"?

For those who don't follow NYC news (and why should you?) Fossella is the only Republican NYC member of Congress, representing very socially conservative Staten Island. He and his wife and their children are local celebrities, every milestone covered with smiling pictures in the Staten Island Advance. Fosella was recently arrested for drunk driving while running a red light in Virginia. When asked where he was going he said he had to take his sick daughter to the hospital. A woman named Laura Fay bailed him out, and although their daughter is not sick, she is real and three years old. The folks back home are a little upset with Vito (although not, of course, for shunning his sister, his sister-and-law and their children.)

Here's from Clyde Haberman in the NY Times:"We’re no good at predicting the political future. But permit us, if you will, a few tips for politicians, in case they haven’t already figured things out for themselves:

If you drink, don’t drive.

If you drink and drive, don’t run a red light.

If you drink and drive and run a red light, don’t do it on the way to your girlfriend’s house.

And if you drink and drive and run a red light and head to your girlfriend’s house, don’t be surprised what happens next."

At the last election, a Democratic contender got 43% running against Fossella - a number extremely high for Staten Island and generally attributed to dissatisfaction with the Bush regime. Maybe 2008 will be the dawn of a Democratic Rep from that borough?

So lemme get this straight: this guy takes the moral "high ground" by refusing to include his sister and her family in family events...meanwhile having a kid with his girlfriend? And drinking and driving?

Why has vast swaths of the Republican party not just EXPLODED from the hypocrisy? Why???

(Seriously, I would love to see some numbers comparing how many Republican politicians get caught in this stuff vs. Democrats. I mean, I know we've certainly got politicians doing bad crap, but it just doesn't seem like it's as many. Is that just me?)

No, I don't think it's just you. I think there are more Republicans, and of course there's also just the hypocrisy factor. Which certainly applies to Democrats (Law and Order Governor Spitzer, anyone?) as well, but Republicans really have done the whole Family Values thing in a bigger way. Why hasn't the party exploded from hypocrisy? Because it is built on hypocrisy, and most of it has *nothing* to do with sex.

What's unclear to me is why some can get away with it and some can't. John McCain had numerous, well-publicized extra-marital affairs and then left the wife who waited for him while he was in prison to marry the affair with the most money, and he's looked on as a Family Man. Ronald Reagan made his daughter from his first marriage pretend she was a distant relative so his younger kids wouldn't have to know he was divorced. But I don't think Fossella is going to get off so easy.

Gail Collins in the NY Times said *somebody* should have realized something was up given that he had been in Congress for more than 10 years and didn't have a DC address. "Long time to crash with friends," she said.

He's not only representing Staten Island, but my part of Brooklyn, which sometime in the past was gerrymandered into that district. Which has always driven me nuts: I gave money to Stephen Harrison, his opponent, last year, and gave some this year as well, before Fosella shot himself in the foot. But I never thought we had a prayer of getting anyone who would represent anyone but Staten Islanders.

Part of the problem is that some of his district is in Brooklyn, and his dem opponents have usually come from the BK portion and they are just not as popular or well known in SI. This is of course subject to change now ..

My main opinion of Susan Molinari is that when someone is elected to a two-year term in the House of Representatives she should not leave in the middle of it for a job on a tv show. I mean, really, is two years such an onerous commitment? If you are not willing to stick it out, at least tell the voters during the campaign that you're only doing this until someone offers you a deal on tv. I'm glad nobody watched her show and it was canceled after a few months.

Wow; that's appalling. I always think that there can't possibly be a worse story about a "family values" type (solicits men to blow in restrooms, beats wife and kids, secretly murdered entire family), and then they surprise me. Every single time.